o How much is that upgrade in the Window? Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor & Windows Anytime Upgrade options

If you have Windows 7 Premium and at some point decide to upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, you can do this via the Windows 7 operating system disc if your system came with the disc, or from within your Windows 7 you can go to Start, type Windows Anytime Upgrade in the search box, and then click on Windows Anytime Upgrade.

• Upgrade costs:

• Premium to Professional: $90

• Premium to Ultimate: $140

• Professional to Ultimate: $130

If you are considering upgrading your current Vista or XP system to Windows 7, it is my opinion that if your desktop or laptop is over a year old, it is often better to buy a new laptop or desktop with Windows 7. The reason is if you upgrade your current system, you could be carrying over bugs or a pre-existing condition into the new version. On top of that with the cost of a new laptop or desktop with Windows 7 already on less than $350.00 that is a deal that is hard to pass up.

So if you consider that the Windows 7 software alone costs $200 on up, this means that with new computer (desktop or laptop) that costs $350, you would paying only $150 for the hardware (desktop/laptop)!

Let´s not forget that if you were to upgrade XP to Windows 7 on a newer system, the upgrade only allows a clean install, meaning it will NOT preserve your applications and settings, you have to reinstall your applications. Not a perfect scenario.

You can upgrade Vista to Windows 7 (if your hardware is compatible), but let´s say you run an upgrade, your computer will still be the same age and if it gives out at some point, you have lost money on Windows 7. The reason I say this is because if you do decide to buy a new computer, those already come with Windows 7 and you are left with that extra copy you bought and no longer need.

The end result of buying a new system instead of upgrading may result in fewer headaches and a better computer as well. It´s hard to argue against that unless you have a newer system that cost you quite a bit of money and that your newer system is capable of being upgraded to Windows 7.

If you already have Windows 7 and are upgrading to another version or Windows 7, you will most likely have compatible hardware because 7 to 7 uses the same hardware.

If you do decide to upgrade your current system, either from Vista to Windows 7 OR Windows 7 to a different version of Windows 7 you will want to run Microsoft´s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor first. You can download this by going to the following link:

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15&displaylang=en

In the next article, I will cover how to look for basic hardware and version information on Windows 7.

Here´s to happy computing!

Richard Tausch, MCSE, CCNA, CompTia Security +